Prevalence and molecular identification of Balantioides coli isolates from pet guinea pigs in Central China
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PROTOZOOLOGY - ORIGINAL PAPER
Prevalence and molecular identification of Balantioides coli isolates from pet guinea pigs in Central China Wenchao Yan 1 & Chenyang Sun 1 & Kai He 1 & Lifang Han 1 & Chaochao Lv 1 & Weifeng Qian 1 & Tianqi Wang 1 & Min Zhang 1 & Zhiguo Wei 1 Received: 25 March 2020 / Accepted: 2 September 2020 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Balantioides coli is the only known zoonotic ciliate that can infect humans and is usually acquired from swine. It has, however, been reported in other mammals, including guinea pigs, where infection prevalence and molecular characterization are relatively unknown. In the present study, 32 guinea pigs from two different pet markets in Luoyang city of the Henan province in China were evaluated for ciliate-like trophozoites or cysts by direct fecal smear microscopy. Positive samples were further characterized using 18S rDNA and ITS1–5.8S rDNA-ITS2 sequence analysis. Microscopy indicated that ciliate-like cysts were observed in the fecal samples of several guinea pigs, were spherical in shape, and exhibited sizes of 40–65 μm in diameter. The average cystpositive prevalence in guinea pigs was 62.5%. Sequence analysis indicated that the guinea pig-derived ciliate isolates belonged to B. coli and included two genetic variants (A and B), of which genetic variant A was more dominant among the guinea pig samples. To the best of our knowledge, the present study is the first molecular identification of B. coli in guinea pigs and provides some important information for investigating the molecular epidemiology of B. coli. Keywords Guinea pigs . Balantioides coli . Infection investigation . Molecular identification . 18S rDNA . ITS1–5.8S rDNA-ITS2
Introduction Balantioides coli (formerly known as Balantidium coli) is the only known zoonotic ciliated pathogen that infects humans and is also present in other animals. It is generally found in the ceca and colons of hosts including pigs, humans, and nonhuman primates (Schuster and Ramirez-Avila 2008; PonceGordo et al. 2011; Soleimanpour et al. 2016). Balantioides coli can penetrate into the mucosal layers of the large intestine, where it causes balantidial diarrhea and ulcers in hosts including young or immunosuppressed ones (Ahmed et al. 2019; Castro et al. 1983; Cermeno et al. 2003). Domestic pigs and wild boars are generally considered to be the most important natural reservoir hosts for human balantidiasis (Wang et al. Section Editor: Yaoyu Feng * Wenchao Yan [email protected] 1
College of Animal Science and Technology, Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang 471023, China
2011; Schuster and Ramirez-Avila 2008). Balantioides coli infections are usually acquired by ingesting cysts in contaminated food or water (Schuster and Ramirez-Avila 2008). In rare cases, the parasite also invades other organs including the peritoneum, liver, lungs, and genitourinary tract, resulting in extraintestinal infections in humans (Sharma and Harding 2003; Ferry et al. 2004; Bandyopadhyay et al.
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